Diablo 3 Bosses: Waller Issue

Posted By: April 24, 2013

Blizzard replied with some comments about how the Diablo 3 bosses Waller affix. The original player post is very long and thus not quoted below, but the OP quotes a lot of others complaining that Waller walls sometimes appear right on top of them, or that multiple walls from Champions block them from moving, generally right when an Arcane needle is turning their way. Blues made a couple of replies, which are quoted below:

Lylirra: At the moment, our QA team is having difficulty reproducing this bug internally, so we have a small request.

If you’re still running into situations where Waller monsters are spawning their walls right on top of your characters, we would really appreciate a list of steps that you took to get this bug to occur or a video that shows when and where this happens. (While we’re super thankful for the reports and screenshots you’ve submitted thus far, we just need some additional details to figure out what’s going on.)

For clarity: Waller champions will sometimes spawn multiple walls in a tight formation near a player, which can limit mobility. This is not a bug. However, if a single Waller wall is spawned right on top of a character, causing it to be unable to move, then that’s a bug and we would like to know more about these situations.

This doesn’t make any sense to me, what’s the difference if you’re stuck between multiple walls or just stuck in one wall. Lylirra: In one situation, you have monsters with the Waller affix spawning walls near a character in a tight formation, or adjacent to one another in a way that may limit where your character can go. This is not a bug.

In the other, you have walls being spawned directly on top of a character, which basically makes it unable to move in any direction until it despawns — and this is regardless of where the other walls may have spawned, too. This is a bug, because walls should not spawn on top of characters.

We made some changes in patch 1.0.7 which we believe should have fixed this, but since we’re still getting reports from players, we’re continuing to investigate. Right now, we’re having trouble replicating the bug on our end, so we’re reaching out to players for more information. The more information we have, the better our chances to replicate the issue. Replicating the issue internally is key, because that let’s us know what the problem is and, in turn, how to fix it (ideally).

Also, I feel it’s worth noting that, while it’s currently the intended behavior for monsters with the Waller affix to be able to spawn tightly near a character, that doesn’t mean the functionality is set in stone forever. We’ve seen a lot of great feedback from players on the affix (like giving walls HP or purposefully staggering where the walls spawn) that we’re definitely reviewing.

For the purpose of troubleshooting, though, it’s important for us to identify how the affix is supposed to work right now — what behavior is intended vs. what isn’t — and make that distinction as clear as possible for you. Even if you disagree with how the affix is designed, we still want to be able to fix the bug, and understanding what you’re experiencing (normal mechanics vs. bug) is a key part of that.

A lot of the player comments in the thread are easy to dismiss, as people genuinely seem to think that no Boss Affixes should ever be dangerous, and thus Waller should be nerfed or removed since it might actually cause someone to get killed. (Hint: that’s the whole point in boss modifiers.) That said, Waller isn’t meant to be an unbreakable version of Jailer, so a single wall shouldn’t stick you like a butterfly on a pin.

In my experience, when I’ve been “stuck” by a single wall it’s always when I was moving very quickly, either via something like Tempest Rush, or more often some sort of a teleporting skill. The game tries to put the wall at least a few yards from a character, but if the character is really zooming, you can get right on top of the wall when it appears.

That said, I’ve never actually been stuck by a wall, and there’s always one direction go move that will get me out. The tricky part is that it’s not always the obvious direction. I’ve been right on top of walls that look 1% to my left and 99% to my right, but when I try to go left I can’t move. However, if I spin the mouse around and try to move in every direction, one way will take me free. IMHO people who die saying they were “stuck” on a single wall didn’t try moving in every direction, either because they died before they had a chance, or because they panicked and only tried to move in the direction that appeared to be open.

You are, of course, free to disagree in comments.

On a more general issue; are you guys satisfied with the current Boss Affixes? I am not, and I keep hoping Blizzard will add some new ones, or tweak some of the current ones. I want more variety, and more danger, or at least affixes that force me to alter/vary my play style more often. For a skilled player with good gear, the only real dangers are spending too much time in Arcane Enchanted beams or eating more than 2 Molten explosions at once. Other mods can tie into those, especially the CC ones like Frozen or Waller or Vortex or Nightmare, but all the rest are basically irrelevant, in terms of changing my play behavior.

I’ve been stuck inside the wall few times with witch doctor and i wasn’t using any mobility skill at the moment(like spirit walk). And yes i always try to move in every direction 🙂 Dunno, maybe it has to do something with the pets. Luckily none of those walls were fatal.

I’ve been stuck a couple of times, and you might be right about speed. I distinctly remember it happening on a Fleeting shrine. But also, if you get 99% stuck, usually that 1% spot you can get out is covered in plague, a frozen bomb, desecration, arcane sprinkler head, or molten pool. That’s the beauty of the system. Each individual affix isn’t that bad, but add them up and they are more dangerous than the sum of the parts. Still need some work, though. Champions especially. They’re definitely better than the D2 versions, but they need more and varied champion only and rare only affixes to separate them.

You can definitely get completely stuck in walls still, although it happens much less often now compared to 1.0.6.

As for the boss affixes, I think they are mostly fine. Each is relatively harmless by itself, but certain combinations can be problematic, depending on your build and party composition. I think this is good design, because otherwise you could easily get screwed by certain combos and skipping Elites would become much more prevalent. Even now, I often thought about doing it (Molten Desecrator Plagued Extra Health Golgors, I hate you) and I would prefer if every build could handle every combination, but only just, which is where we are right now.

I learned recently that even Electrified can be really dangerous under the wrong circumstances. Right now I’m playing a CM Wizard in a 4 player party and so I decided to bring Slow Time for the 20% party-wide damage buff. As it turns out our spin-to-win (or in this case spin-to-lose) barb doesn’t have enough life steal yet to handle Electrified Elites this way, because every time he approached the boss he died in short time (this happened on MP6 BTW). Now I have to drop Slow Time temporarily, which is a shame, because I like pretty sparkles filling up my screen.

The only two boss mods that need to change in my opinion are Vampiric and Avenger. Vampiric simply needs a buff, but Avenger has to be reworked, because in my experience Elites often die nearly the same time (thanks to the prevalence of AoE focused builds, which also needs to be looked into) and so its effect doesn’t really come into play.

In short, if someone thinks that certain boss affixes are weak then I think they should try different chars, play on higher MP levels and in a party. If the game is so easy for you that you never die in a 4 player party on MP10 with any characters then congratulations, you win at Diablo 3. Welcome to the 1% (or less). 🙂

I’ve been stuck in a few walls recently as well. At least one was a combo with desecrate that was autokill, more or less. I wouldn’t touch HC with a stick, so it doesn’t really bother me, but it does happen fairly often. I assume their inability to replicate the bug comes from their unwillingness to launch the game. *snark, snark*

You can get stuck. Just because it didn’t happen to you doesn’t mean it doesn’t happen to others. I’ve been killed this way where you’re pinned inside a wall.

The problem people have with certain elite affixes is that they can be extremely cheep. Getting vortexed/jailed/walled into a pack of Fallen Maniacs and being insta killed without being able to do ANYTHING is not okay. It’s completely broken for HC especially.

This is the #1 reason WW/Sprint barb is the king of the game. You avoid all those stupid unavoidable deaths by cheap monster affixes.

I like those affixes, they promote the use of mobility skills and CC breaking skills in general. Building well-rounded characters this way is more interesting. I think if you focus too much on offense you should be punished, unless you’re so powerful that you can completely overpower Elites with CC affixes, which is definitely possible on lower MP levels.

Currently the problem is that the WD, DH and Monk cannot escape the walls of Waller Elites in some circumstance (mainly in tight corridors) even if they are working as intended. This can easily result in avoidable death if the Elite also spawns with Desecrator, Mortar, Plagued or other similar affixes. As you mentioned, random groups of enemies can also cause problems in this case. This needs to be fixed.

Personally I’d prefer if walls placed by Elites would have a larger spacing between them and/or if their width would be reduced. Basically, it should be impossible for you to get stuck even in tight dungeons in my opinion, until every character is given a skill to escape these situations. We already have two very dangerous CC affixes in the form of Frozen and Jailer. It wouldn’t hurt if Waller would be less of a CC mod and rather a counter against ranged players.

Spirit Walk doesn’t allow you to pass through waller walls, or dungeon walls (or even closed dungeon doors for that matter). This is actually a pretty big gripe of mine. I love playing WD, but to me the notion of a ‘Sprit’ skill inherently means I should at LEAST be able to pass through closed doors. Otherwise they should have named it something different, because it otherwise makes for a very lame, weak spirit!

Spirit Walk does let you freely move through enemies though, sort of like WW does for a barb.

I can’t recall ever getting stuck by a wall like this…if it’s happened it hasn’t been fatal. I’m at a loss regarding the confusion some players seem to be having as far as what’s a bug vs. the intended purpose of Waller. If it wasn’t possible for the walls to completely trap you (bug aside), then where’s the danger? Sure in certain situations in locations with narrow hallways they might still pose a danger, but to me the affix is working properly if it can at times become a form of Jailer but with limited mobility rather than no mobility.

I’m always up for more variety in affixes available to Champs/Rares and I do like the idea of having some that are specific to one type of enemy vs. the other. I also agree that Avenger and Vampiric need some attention. Frankly, if I didn’t look up the definition of the Avenger affix I would never have known what it did…it just doesn’t ever seem to noticeably come into play. I think the majority of the affixes are otherwise OK. Sure sometimes the combinations you encounter are easy, but sometimes they simply aren’t (like the Golgor example above). I farm at MP5 & 6 and there are definitely plenty of instances where affix combos are just so, that the net effect is a nice speed bump to my otherwise cruising through an Act. To me, that means they are working as intended on the whole.

I agree with the player that complains of the waller bug. Yes, waller is supposed to have walls around you, but NOT over you. It happened to me a few times now. You can´t move at all, it´s not that you can´t move because there are walls and surround them, it´s because the wall appeard over you and you are done till it dissapears. As others said, this bug combined with arcane, molten, or whatever it is that appears below you is instant death for your char. Affixes combos are fine, what is not fine is that they are bugged and can kill you but not the way is is supposed to be.